Rep. Walden Will Go 'Nuclear' If FCC Adopts MAP Petition

Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) said Friday that if the FCCwere to use its sponsorship ID enforcement powers to require on-airidentification of the people who are actually paying for political commercials,he would go "nuclear," confirmed an aide.

"He would be calling for the football to get the[nuclear] codes," said the staffer. That declaration came in a talk Fridaysponsored by POLITICO Pro.

Walden, who is chairman of the House Communications Subcommittee, said that he did not want the FCC regulatingspeech, according to an attendee. In this case, the reference was to a petitionto the FCC filed by Media Access Project asking it to require on-airidentification of the people who are paying for political commercials or issueads.

The petition is partly in response to the Citizen'sUnited decision by the Supreme Court, which allowed companies and unions todirectly fund campaign ads. Democrats in Congress tried to toughen disclosurelaws in response, but the bills did not pass.

"The FCC has repeatedly said that members of the publicare entitled to know by whom they are being persuaded, and it has stressed thatthis is especially important in the case of political messages,"said MAP's Andrew Schwartzman. "This petition simply seeks to updatethe FCC's rules to fulfill its Congressional mandate."

Commissioner Michael Copps supports changes to thesponsorship rules. He told a C-SPAN audience this week that if you have an adon TV paid for by "Citizens For Spacious Skies and Amber Waves ofGrain," citizens ought to know it if was really paid for by a chemicalcompany refusing to clean up a toxic dump. Copps said he was not trying tocut off those acts, but that MAP was on the right track. "I think it istime for this," he said.

Walden clearly does not, seeing it as an end-around afterCongress did not pass tougher on-air disclosure laws backed primarily byDemocrats.

The aide also said Rep. Walden's April 12 spectrumhearing, which will be one of several, will be a broad one. It will almostcertainly include issues of spectrum hoarding, the meaning of"voluntary" in voluntary incentive auctions, and more.

While spectrum is top of the list of Subcommittee issues,the aide said Walden would likely turn next to FCC processes. "He will bedigging into FCC processes," he said.

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